


Standing Together In A Crowd

by BookGirlFan



Series: In Which Darry Gets A Boyfriend [1]
Category: Letterkenny (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Character, Canon Bisexual Character, Families of Choice, Gen, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24120742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookGirlFan/pseuds/BookGirlFan
Summary: Darry's out sick. Katy goes to check on him.
Relationships: Daryl & Katy (Letterkenny)
Series: In Which Darry Gets A Boyfriend [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755076
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42





	Standing Together In A Crowd

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to hellopenelope for betaing for me again!

Katy sucked on her pencil, thinking. She’d been making a list of groceries she needed to get at the store, but something felt like it was missing. She checked through the cupboards, couldn’t figure it out, so she opened the fridge to check there as well. If she didn’t find it now, she’d only remember when she was halfway to the store, and she wasn’t going to waste gas turning back at that point. 

Her eye caught on the yoghurt cups sitting on the bottom shelf. Hadn’t she put those on her list yet? No, she hadn’t needed to because Darry had been sick the last few days and hadn’t eaten any. She hadn’t even seen him since he’d first called out. 

She closed the fridge, leaning back against it with a frown. That wasn’t like him. Darry barely went a day without coming up to the property, only sometimes went home to sleep and had ever since they were kids. Used to drive his mamma mad when she wanted him for something but he was never around. She hadn’t minded so much once she was using the money he earned from chorin’ to buy more meth, though. 

Still, for Darry to stay away this long it had to be bad. 

She heard Wayne stomping into the house and called out to him, “Wayne, you heard from Darry today?” 

“Can’t say I have.” He poked his head around into the kitchen, squinting at her. “He still sick?” 

“Must be, he hasn’t come up to the house since you sent him home.” 

“Darry would have come up to the house.” 

“Darry always comes up to the house.” 

They shared a silent moment of sibling communication.

Katy rolled her eyes. “I’ll go check on him.” 

“Please and thank you!” Wayne disappeared back out the front door. 

Katy put her list aside and instead grabbed some of the soup in the freezer from when Wayne had been sick a couple months ago and Katy had made him soup. Whenever she made soup, she always made enough to freeze leftovers, or it hardly felt worth making in the first place. 

Leftovers in hand, she walked down the road to the little trailer Darry lived in, like he’d done since his mother was alive and living there with him. He stayed up at the house more often than not, more convenient for chorin’ and the like, but still came back here fairly often. Usually when he was mad or felt he was imposing or something else stupid like that. 

She knocked on the door, three sharp knocks. A few minutes passed with no answer, so she knocked again. This time she heard movement inside, and the door opened in to reveal Darry in his sleep clothes, paler than milk and with patchy facial hair starting to grow in, though still not enough to be a beard. 

“Katy? What are you doing here?” For all he was destined for constant confusion, Katy still wasn’t used to seeing Darry look so much of a space case. He looked like he’d fall right off his front step if he wasn’t leaning on the doorframe for support. 

“Haven’t seen you in a few days, Darry. That hasn’t happened since Dad started paying you pocket money to go chorin’ like Wayne and me.” Darry didn’t argue that point, so she concluded, “Came to check if you’re still alive out here or if we’d be burying your body out in the back fields.” 

“Bodies make good fertiliser,” Darry said, still sounding far too spacey for her liking. He wavered, his hand reaching out to the doorframe so he could keep his balance. “Increases nitrogen and phosphate levels of the soil. Read about it on the internet.” 

Katy watched this and huffed. “You remember that but you couldn’t make yourself some soup so you can get better?” She pushed her way past Darry and into the trailer, heading straight for the little kitchen. 

Darry followed her, protesting, “I did make soup! I just spit it all up again.” He stumbled, and she pushed him towards the bed, noting his high temperature through his thin t-shirt. She wiped her hand off with a grimace. Why were boys always so sweaty? Some boys, she was happy to make them sweaty, but this was Darry and that was just gross. 

“Go sit down there and get out of my way,” she told him. He sat obediently, though it was possibly less sitting and more his legs giving out from under him. “I’ve brought soup, but you better not spit it up on me.” 

Darry didn’t say anything, so she let it be and poured some of the soup into two bowls, putting them into the microwave to heat and putting the rest in the little fridge under the counter. 

Neither of them said anything for a while. The hum of the microwave served as the only background noise. Katy took the soup out halfway through and stirred it, the rich smell permeating throughout the trailer. It was her mother’s recipe, good for what ails you. She and Wayne and Darry had all had it whenever they were sick growing up, and even as an adult, it was the only thing a sick Wayne would ever eat. 

Only when the soup was heated did Katy turn around to look at Darry, and found him asleep. 

She only took a moment to debate what to do, because it was pretty clear. The soup was hot now, and if she waited for Darry to wake up it’d grow cold again and the whole thing would start over. If he didn’t look so sick, hair sweaty and cheeks flushed with fever, she might have just kicked the bed to wake him, but instead she went over and shook his shoulder. “Darry, soup’s ready. Wake up.” 

He roused, blinking blearily at her. “‘M awake." Sitting up, he asked through a yawn, “Soup?” 

“Yeah. Don’t get up,” she forestalled him just as he began to stand, “I’m bringing it over.” He settled back onto the bed, and she handed him his bowl before joining him on the bed and digging into her own bowl of soup. She may not be sick, but it was still delicious. 

They sat side by side on the bed as they ate their soup, shoulders pressed together. It was a squeeze, and Katy quickly grew overheated from the feverish heat Darry was still radiating, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. It was like being a kid again, keeping a sick Darry or Wayne company after school until Ma found out and chased her out of there, scolding her that she’d get herself sick. 

When she inevitably did, the boys returned the favour, snuggling up beside her in bed and reading her favourite books aloud. Wayne read like he did everything else, smooth and efficient with a gift for saying the funniest lines with a completely straight face, whereas Darry was enthusiastic but awkward, stumbling over words and attempting terrible accents that gradually grew better as he got older. Whoever it was, as soon as they heard footsteps up the stairs, they’d stop and shush each other, trying not to get caught but never quite able to stop giggling. There was no way Ma never heard them, but she must have believed laughter made the best medicine because she never came in. 

Katy’d forgotten all about that until now. Wayne and Darry hadn’t read to her in years.

Darry suddenly turned pale, hand shooting up to cover his mouth. 

Katy leaned away from him. “Don’t you dare spit on me!” 

He visibly swallowed. His hand cautiously came away from his mouth, and he swallowed again. “Think I’m good.”

Katy watched him for a moment, then shook her head. “You’re such a degen, Darry.” 

“Hey, you try spitting up pert near everything you’ve eaten for the last few days and not get sick of it! I’m not wasting soup this good.” 

“You’ve been throwing up everything?” 

Darry nodded around another spoonful of soup. “Everything but yoghurt, but I ran out of that yesterday.”

“There’s still plenty up at the house,” she reminded him. “It’ll go off if you don’t eat it soon.” 

“Yoghurt does have a short shelf life.” 

“So stop being a tit and come eat it!” She whacked him on the shoulder, but lightly so she he wouldn’t spill his soup on the sheets. “What did you even come down here for anyways?” 

He looked down at his toes, rubbing the shoulder she’d just whacked. “Dunno. Just wanted to think, I guess.” 

“Bout what?” 

“Bout Anik.” 

“She cheated on you, Darry.” She ignored his protests and continued speaking. “You can’t go back to a cheater and get any respect. You know that, ‘specially after that cheat Marie-Fred.” 

“Meryl Cheat.” 

“America’s Cheatheart.” 

“Cheat Pray Love.” 

They paused, and Darry opened his mouth to protest again, but Katy immediately forestalled him. “Yes, Anik cheated, and no, you can’t try and talk to her again. You deserve better, Darry, just like Wayne.” 

She watched Darry mull that one over for a few seconds. “Guess at least Anik and I weren’t engaged. Not like Marie-Fred, with that Google Cheat-view.”

“Thought she was living on easy cheat.” 

“Hosting a cheat and greet.”

“A real cheatwalker.”

“Queen of the Cheats.” 

“Cheatrice.” Darry looked at her, and she explained, “From Much Ado About Nothing. Though I also like Bene _dick_.” He giggled, and Katy smirked to herself. Wayne definitely would have gotten after her for that joke. 

“Stephanie Cheatriz.” 

“Love her.” 

“Oh, yeah, she’s the best.” 

Katy set her bowl in her lap and spread her hands out behind her, letting her weight rest back on them. She liked it better to be sitting out in the sun by the produce stand, Puppers by her side as she tanned, but this wasn’t bad. Would have been better if Darry hadn’t hidden himself away and she didn’t have to come down here at all, especially after Wayne had just come out of the shed, but hopefully now she could drag Darry up to the house and things could go back to normal. ‘Sides, now they’d both had time to think maybe they’d both get back to dating again, so she wouldn’t be the only one in the house getting some. 

“Can I ask you a question without you saying it’s stupid?” Darry asked unexpectedly. 

The answer to that one was so obvious it almost wasn’t worth saying. “Not if it’s a stupid question.” 

“I’m not saying it’s a stupid question, I just don’t want you to call it one.” 

“If it’s not a stupid question, you don’t need to worry about it, do you?” 

“Well now I don’t even want to ask it.” 

“Darry!” she said with sharp frustration. “Just ask already!” 

He took a moment to respond, and she thought she’d have to yell at him again. Finally, he said, “You know how a guy looks at another guy and thinks, hey, he’s kind of cute? Well, do girls do that with other girls?” 

She turned to look at him, frustration fading. Surely this wasn’t what it sounded like. Darry had said stranger things before and not meant them the way they’d sounded. “Darry, do you think guys are cute?” 

He looked a little surprised, clearly pulled out of his train of thought. “Well, yeah. Any guy can think another guy is cute.” 

Katy’s voice came out soft, which wasn’t what she’d planned on but then she’d never planned on this situation at all. This was _Daryl_. He was basically her other brother. For all he was goofy sometimes, she never expected to actually have to explain this to him. She’d never even thought about it. “Darry, most guys don’t think like that.” 

“They don’t?” He frowned. “So if most guys don’t think other guys are cute, then girls don’t think other girls are cute?” 

“If you mean cute like attractive, then some girls can totally think other girls are cute. Like some guys might think guys are cute. Me, I think guys and girls are cute. Attractive cute.” He still didn’t seem to be getting it, so she elaborated, “Because I’m bi.”

“Oh.” She watched the pieces click behind his eyes. “Oh.” 

He didn’t say anything, and neither did she; some things needed time to marinate. 

Katy took the bowl from Darry’s hand and piled it on her own, standing to put them both in the little sink. She then sat back on the bed beside Darry, swaying towards him until her shoulder knocked his again, just to remind him she was there. 

They continued to sit in silence. 

Eventually, the sun coming through the blinds and into the trailer reminded Katy that there were still things to be done up at the house, and she needed to pitter patter because the work wouldn’t wait. 

She stood. “Well, great day for hay out there, Darry, and there’s work to be done even if you’re stuck in here.” 

“Yeah, didn’t think I’d be sick this long. Tell Wayne I’m sorry, would you?” 

“Get better and tell him yourself. I’m not a messenger service.” She headed for the door, opening it to find it wasn’t quite as late as she had thought. She’d still have time to go get the groceries from town before coming back to make dinner. 

“Hey Katy?” 

She stopped at the top of the little set of steps, turning around to properly look at Darry. He’d stood to follow her out, and the soup must have helped some because he already looked less shaky on his feet. 

“I think I might be bisexual.” 

She stepped forward and he immediately stepped back, clearly anticipating her hitting him. Apparently she hadn’t been the only one thinking of childhood. Instead, she grabbed him in a fierce hug, before retreating back down the steps again. “Finish the rest of that soup tonight, then tomorrow come up to the house. I’m not walking down here again.” 

Darry, still looking surprised from the force of her hug but smiling widely nonetheless, waved acknowledgement. She returned his smile, and as she turned to head back up to the house, her smile stayed. As happy she was to be the one to stand out in a crowd, sometimes it was nice to have someone to stand with.


End file.
